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India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth for fiscal year (FY) 2020 ending on 31 March 2021 is forecast to contract by 9.0% as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic weighs heavily on economic activity and consumer sentiment in the country, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
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Japan’s carbon steel sales in July for both the domestic market and exports in July rose 9.5% on month to about 4.7 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on September 16, or a continuing recovery since May, but it had been still sluggish, a JISF official commented.
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Many economic sectors in China including those of consumption, industrial production and investment showed more positive signs of returning to their normal tracks by the end of August, according to a series of highlights published individually by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on September 15.
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Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan’s leading electric-arc-furnace producer, has decided to raise the prices of certain but not all flat and long steel products by Yen 2,000/tonne ($19/t) for domestic sales in October, reflecting their varied market situations, the company announced on September 15.
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Nippon Steel, a leading H-beam producer in Japan, has decided to remain its H-beam domestic spot sales prices unchanged for September, so as to give the market one more month to fully digest its price hike for July sales, though it will lift the prices in the coming months to reflect higher input costs, the company announced September 14.
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Over January-August,China’s fixed asset investment (FAI) still declined on year but narrowed to0.3%, and the funding in the domestic property market grew faster by4.6%on year, according to the latest release from the country's National Bureau of Statistics. A detailed report will be posted soon.
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China's crude steel output grew 3.7% on year to about 689 million tonnes over January-August, according to the latest release from the country's National Bureau of Statistics.A detailed report will be posted soon.
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Japan’s core machinery orders improved by 6.3% on month in July, marking a strong rebound from the sharp fall of 7.6% in June, according to a survey by the Japanese government’s Cabinet Office, released on September 10. The volume of orders received is increasing but still lags far below pre-virus levels and investment sentiment remains weak, steel industry sources cautioned on Friday.
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Japan’s new vessel orders posted the first on-year rise in August, up 4.6% on year to 579,400 gross tonnes or nine vessels, according to new data released by the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association (JSEA) on September 9, though the market sources suspect this to be sustainable, and thus little support to steel plate consumption.
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Japan’s dealer prices of hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets across Japan have shown signs of bottoming out since the end of August with their stocks have returned to a reasonable level, encouraging distributors to raise their offering prices, according to sources in Tokyo and Osaka.
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In the first eight months of 2020, China imported more energy products such as crude oil,natural gas and coal,according to the latest statistics from the country’s General Administration of Customs published on September 7, and the slowing global economy had sent prices lower.
For crude oil, China imported 368 million tonnes
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Over January-August, China’s total foreign trade value dipped 0.6% on year, which narrowed further by 1.1 percentage points from that for the first seven months, but the imports values for both August and the first eight months decreased on year, the latest statistics from the country’s General Administration of Customs on September 7 showed.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, have been mulling the restart of two idled blast furnaces in the second half of fiscal 2020 (October 2020-March 2021) on noting the steady improvement in steel demand from the country’s auto sector, a Nippon Steel official confirmed on September 4.
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Over the last month, the major ASEAN economies have announced their Q2 2020 macroeconomics results. As expected, Q2 GDP figures are down for all countries (Table 1) as compared to Q1 2020 (Table 2). However, there are a few interesting areas to note.
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Taiwan’s top steel producer and one of major carbon steel exporters to Japan, China Steel Corp (CSC), will lift its export offering prices to Japan for October-December shipments by at least Yen 5,000/t ($47/t) for all flat products including hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils, and plates mainly because of their higher production costs, a CSC official in Osaka confirmed on September 3.
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Stocks of carbon steel hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated coils and sheets at the Japanese steel producers, coil centers and distributors reduced 7.7% or 329,000 tonnes on month to about 3.97 million tonnes by the end of July, according to the latest data released by Nippon Steel on September 2, which was mainly due to production trimming and steady deliveries to customers, a company official explained.
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Japan's auto sales in August dropped by 16% on year, new industry data shows, as consumer confidence continued to languish in response to the coronavirus contagion. Nevertheless, last month’s result was not all bad, and sales this month are expected to show some improvement, doubtless to the relief of the country’s carbon and special steel producers, Mysteel Global notes.
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The Japanese shipbuilders expect their carbon steel consumption in fiscal 2020 (April 2020 – March 2021) to fall about 21% on year to 2.65 million tonnes in consideration of fewer new orders, according to the forecast released on September 1 by The Shipbuilders’ Association of Japan (SAJ).
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Metallurgical Corporation of China Ltd (MCC), China’s top metallurgical engineering and construction company, posted a 13.8% on-year gain in net profit and a 13.6% on-year rise in business revenue in the first half of 2020, according to its interim report released on August 29, which mainly benefited from Chinese steel mills’ relocation and upgrading, the country’s lift in infrastructure investment, especially after the virus outbreak, and property projects.
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Both the fundamentals and market sentiment will be lending support to China’s steel prices in general and rebar in particular in September, and coke and scrap prices may stay on their uptrends while iron ore price may recede from the highs, Wang Jianhua, Mysteel’s chief analyst shared his near-term outlook on September 1.
